Last minute items before I leave.

Location, at Home, CA

Well, time is slipping away. I have been working diligently this past week on the to-do list for the fall trip.

I leave Tuesday morning so that only leaves one day to finish up. I have several major items on my list for tomorrow that remain to be done.

The most vexing is the one tire on the RV which is not holding air. I set the air pressure at 80 PSI for each tire and expect a small amount of leakage over a few weeks. This tire however was at 45 lbs which is not good. I inflated it to 80 PSI yesterday and it was down to 77.5 this morning. I will check it tomorrow morning but suspect I need to remove it and have it checked at Big O in town. I really don’t want to leave with a bad tire and need to inflate it every day. That is a pain.

The other 2 major items are grocery shopping and a physical tomorrow afternoon. The physical is my annual so I need to get it done. The health carrier I have has been after me to get it.

I don’t know how much time I will have for the next week and a half to update this blog but I will try.

Moving forward.

Location, at Home, CA

 
I did buy a 1.5 TB hard drive as a backup for all my files. Actually, it is a backup to the backup as I have another drive I also use. Can’t have too many backups!
 
I am still working on plans for our annual fall trip. I think I now have all the facts together. We have had two drop out from our original bunch. It tends to happen every year. It is very hard to plan 6 or more months in advance with a large group of people.

We do have enough 4x4 vehicles this year so that is one less worry. We have three vehicles and only 7 people which makes it comfortable especially as most of the driving is off highway. A crowded vehicle is uncomfortable.
 
I washed the front and back of the RV today. The bugs really were stuck tight to the front. They were an accumulation from 6000 miles of driving. I also waxed the front but it is hard to tell I did anything. The gel-coat has lost its shine and wax doesn’t seem to bring it back. It just makes the surface smoother.

Cleanup and prepairing next trip.

Location, at Home, CA

This week was taken up by clean up duties after being on the road for two months. Actually, one day short of two months.

We stayed at Morro Bay until Monday morning and of course the weather was nicer by Monday. We played lots of Mexican Train and Tony won 9 out of 13 hands in one game. The game lasted until 11 PM on Sunday.

The trailer is just about ready for the next trip. I need to wash the bugs off the front and look at a problem in the cabinet under the TV. The wall next to the refrigerator cabinet seems to be collapsing at the bottom. Without pulling the refrigerator from its cabinet I would guess there is not enough bracing in the wall to take the bouncing of the refer weight. For now I think I will put a brace on the TV side of the wall but eventually, the refer has to come out to do a proper job. Ooooh… Budd! Looks like a job for us!

Thanks to Budd both at the start of our trip this summer and at the end when he helped me with several blinds. The cords eventually give out so the solution is to remove the day part of the shade and only use the night portion. This puts less stress on the cords.

My days are filled with plans for our fall trip. I think I have the actual 4x4 trips well in hand but other logistics need to be done ASAP. We need reservations in Las Vegas for 4 days, food assignments need to be done (my job). Menus need to be planned (we all take turns cooking), groceries need to be bought, etc. It is always a busy time.

I had a real scare yesterday. I bought a new Dell desktop computer just before we went on our summer trip so I am spending a lot of time trying to figure out how Windows 7 works. Yesterday I turned it on in the morning, read my email then went off to do errands for a few hours. When I came back I went to bring the computer out of hibernation which I always do during the day. I pushed the power button and nothing happened. Well, something did happen as in the power light blinked but the hard drive didn’t spin up. Uh.. Oh..

Early in their life, 1TB hard drives were known to fail frequently and I thought that is what happened. I called Dell support (India?) and after a few minutes the tech asked me to unplug the unit. As I reached behind the CPU the power cord fell into my hand. Problem solved! I plugged the CPU in when I first started it up back in July so I don’t know how the cord got loose.

Anyway, disaster averted.

However, I do plan to buy a 1 or 2 TB external hard drive to back everything up on as an insurance policy.

Back at home after 2 months on the road.

Location, At Home, CA

The problem with having multiple computers is not remembering what you did on one vs the other. I have been using the Acer Netbook while on the road to write the blog each day.  Now that I am home I use the Dell desktop to update the blog. I don’t remember what I wrote about last so I had better check the blog on-line I guess.

Oh! I see that I last posted on Friday. So to bring you up to date from then.

We spent the weekend with great friends at the beach in Morro Bay, CA. We played lots of Mexican Train, and a new game Tony had made. Tony loaned Budd the game board as a pattern so Budd can make more. Budd will be under the gun to get them done before Tony and Joanne go through Tehachapi on their way to Death Valley in late October.

We played a long game of Mexican Train Sunday night with Tony and Joanne. Of the 13 hands in a double twelve game, Tony won 9! I know he cheats! Maybe he is just lucky.

Budd and Brenda, Kori, and Jessica left for home after cooking us a nice breakfast of waffles and sausage on Sunday.

We decided the weekend was so much fun that we made reservations for next year in April and added Paul and Kathy to the group.

We drove home Monday morning and have been on the go ever since. I don’t think the wash machine has quit running since we got home. Of course, unpacking all the stuff that gets put in nooks and crannies takes time. The refer was unpacked right away so we had food for Monday night, but it still needs to be cleaned tomorrow. All will be done in a day or so.

Blog is up to date.

Location, Morro Bay, CA

Ooops! I’m a little behind in posting.

We drove from Fillmore, UT on Sunday to the Oasis Casino RV Park in Mesquite, NV. The Oasis is a defunct casino but the RV Park is open and run by a Casino down the street. The temperature was rather warm so we ran the AC as soon as we got the power hooked up and then left it on for the rest of our stay.

We visited friends who now live in Mesquite. Clyda worked with Cindy and actually we have known she and husband Roy for years. Nice visit.

Monday morning we ate breakfast at the Casa Blanca coffee shop before we checked out. A big breakfast of 2 pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 sausages, 2 pieces of bacon, and hash browns for $3.99. A great deal!

We drove the 77 miles to Las Vegas where we stayed at the Main Street Station RV Park downtown. It was very warm, in the 90’s but the AC keeps it comfortable.

I took Clyda by the Pawn Star’s shop of TV fame on North Las Vegas Blvd. The line of people was around the building and into the parking lot. Can’t imagine standing in that heat for a few minutes inside the building.

We drove down Las Vegas Blvd to MGM City Center. I wanted to show Clyda the new casinos. I had never driven into the Cosmopolitan parking garage before so it was an adventure as my truck is big and the garage is underground with sharp turns. It was a real challenge but we made it without knocking over any of the rubber posts they use to make the turns.

The Cosmopolitan is known for its more than 2 story chandelier. It is a real work of art. The casino is also pricey.

We walked via the Skywalk to Crystal Shopping center and then out the back of it to Aria another large hotel and casino. We checked out the artwork and shows featured currently. A short monorail ride back to Crystal and another Skywalk trek across Las Vegas Blvd found us in the Planet Hollywood Miracle Mile shopping center in search of food and drink. We found an ice cream stand selling LOBSTER ice cream. Not exactly my cup of tea but they also had Huckleberry ice cream which suited just fine.

We returned to the parking garage and retrieved the truck which now required a few back and forth turns to get up the exit ramp and out of the garage.

We had dinner at the Main Street Station buffet which is still quite good.

Later, we walked to Fremont Street to watch the overhead light show. The featured artist was the Doors from way back when. It was quit good.

Clyda wanted Madi Gras beads so we stopped by the casino that was giving them out. Along with the beads you get a ticket for a drawing worth $10,000. They call out a number every half hour so while we waited Clyda played the slots. When the number was called it was one more than my ticket number. So close, but no cigar.

We drove to Tehachapi on Tuesday and stayed with our friends Budd and Brenda until Thursday morning. Budd helped me with several projects like day/night shade repair, fixing trim on the living room slide, and washing the awning which really needed it.

Thursday Budd drove his rig and Clyda and I took ours to Morro Bay to canp for the weekend. Brenda, Kori and Jessica will come Friday after Kori gets off work. We met Tony and Joanne at the campground. Tony and Joanne camp with Budd and Brenda and our neighbors Paul and Kathy in Death Valley each year while I am there. Good people! I think Tony cheats at Mexican Train as he beat all of us by winning 6 games in a row.

Travels through Provo Canyon, Utah.

Location, Fillmore, UT

Re-reading yesterday’s post, it occurred to me that I talked a lot about the Mountain Men. I admit I have been intrigued by their efforts and feats as recorded in history.

I have read both “Undaunted Courage” by Stephen Ambrose and the abridged version of the “Lewis and Clark Journals” by Bernard DeVoto. Both of these books tell of the hardships and sacrifices of the “Core of Discovery”.

One of the men with Lewis and Clark was John Coulter who on the return trip to St Louis in 1805 asked to be relieved of his duties so he could guide a group of fur trappers back up the Missouri from which he had just returned. Thus began the era of the Mountain Man which continued until about 1835 or so. I recently finished a book called “A Majority of Scoundrels” by Don Berry which pulled together the history of the fur trade in America. It revolved around the Mountain Men who did the trapping and the men who supplied them from St Louis so the men could stay in the mountains and trap.

The exploits of these and all the Mountain Men are hard to comprehend unless you travel to some of the same places they did. Of course, today we can travel in a few hours what took them weeks to accomplish.

I have been lucky to travel and visit many of the places mentioned in the above books and have come to a great appreciation for what these men accomplished.

On our trip back from Wisconsin we drove along the Platte River which Interstate 80 parallels. This route became the road to the west for the fur traders from St Louis and later, the emigrants heading to Oregon and California.

This concludes today’s history lesson.

Last evening we had rain and pea sized hail. It also rained overnight and this morning so I waited until there was a break in the rain to hookup the RV. A quick stop for fuel and we were on our way west in the rain which quit about the time we entered Utah.

Our trek was again on I-80 until we got to the turn for Heber City Utah and the route down Provo Canyon. I have been to Heber City before via Provo Canyon but not pulling an RV. It was ok but there are lots of sharp turns down in the canyon. We exited the canyon in downtown Provo and eventually got to I-15 south. Tonight is the big foot ball game between BYU and Utah in Provo so all the radio stations were predicting dire traffic problems. Of course I-15 is all under construction as usual but we had no problems.

Tonight we are in Fillmore, UT at the KOA. Not our first choice but the other campground was closed. I am not a KOA fan because of their high prices. This RV Park was no different. Full hookups but no cable TV. We do however have lots of over air channels, many in High Definition so that helps.

Exploring Ft Bridger

Location, Ft Bridger, WY

Our drive today had us bucking headwinds most of the way. I could feel the wind but don’t think it slowed us down too much. Western Wyoming has a lot of open spaces with antelope and even a small herd of wild horses.

There are also lots of gas wells especially around Wamsutter. I wish I had seen how the town looked a few years ago as BP has put upwards of $2 billion into the enterprise including the town site. It is a sprawling oil town now.

After we arrived at Ft Bridger RV Camp, we toured nearby Ft Bridger which actually is at the entrance to the RV Park. Ft Bridger was built by mountain man Jim Bridger as a trading post and way station for emigrant trains. Most of the area is comprised of the old fort which was major stopping point for wagon trains during the time of all movement west to Oregon and California. It was also used as a Pony Express stop. Later the Carter family operated a store along with out buildings. All of these buildings have been restored and remain in good condition.

The original Ft Bridger burned down. The reconstructed fort is located on the property but several hundred feet from the original. Archeological digging recently confirmed where the old fort stood.

Even as a reconstruction, the fort looks much like the original. It had two buildings set at right angles to each other and all surrounded by wood picket walls. Later, a separate wood fort was made for horses so they could be locked up at night.

Many of the foundations of the barracks buildings are still visible although all have long disappeared.

The Generals house is intact and well preserved and open to tours. This building was moved at least three times and even disassembled and stored at one time. It was built with all the amenities to house visiting dignitaries.